1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lever type connector having a connector housing for receiving a terminal of an electric wire, a cover attached to the connector housing for guiding and leading out the electric wire, and a lever attached to the connector housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP,2003-272768,A discloses a lever type connector. FIG. 8 is a partially sectional view of a conventional lever type connector. FIG. 9 is another partially sectional view of the lever type connector.
As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the lever type connector includes a box-shaped connector housing 60 for receiving a terminal of electric wires 4, a hemisphere cover 70 attached to an upper base plate of the connector housing 60 for guiding and leading out the electric wires 4, and a lever 80 attached to the connector housing 60 and sandwiching the connector housing 60 and cover 70. The plurality of the wires 4 come out upwardly from a cavity 63 and are guided horizontally with the hemisphere cover 70 and led outside the cover 70.
The connector housing 60 has an axle 66 at each side thereof for the lever 80 to rotate about the axles. The lever 80 has a guide hole 81, a rotation hole 86, recesses 82 at each side thereof, and an engaging portion 88. The lever 80 is rotatable about the axles 66 of the connector housing 60.
A mating connector (not shown) is fitted from an under side of the connector housing 60. Guide pins (not shown) disposed in the mating connector each are inserted into the guide hole 81 of the lever 80 and pulled upwardly as the lever 80 rotates so that the mating connector is fitted into the connector housing 60. After fitting, the lever locking portion 74 is locked to the engaging portion 88 of the lever 80 as shown in FIG. 8.
When the both connectors are unlocked to each other, a reverse operation of the above is carried out. For unlocking, the lever locking portion 74 is firstly depressed toward a direction B1 as shown in FIG. 9 and the engaging portion 88 of the lever 80 is moved along directions B2 and B3 so as to unlock the lever locking portion 74. The connector shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 is only an example to illustrate features of the connector having the cover and not a connector disclosed in JP,2003-272768,A.
In order to rotate the engaging portion 88 toward the directions B2 and B3, it is necessary to have a enough clearance CL′ to accept a downward movement of the lever locking portion 74 as shown in FIG. 9.
A small size connector and cover 70 are recently requested so that the electric wires 4 occupy a large space in the connector and the connector can not have a enough space to keep the clearance CL′.
When the clearance CL′ is not enough provided, the lever locking portion 74 interferes with the electric wires 4 so that it is difficult to depress enough the lever locking portion 74 toward the direction B1. Accordingly, it becomes also difficult to move the engaging portion 88 toward the directions B2 and B3 and the unlocking of the connectors becomes impossible.